An Unlikely Alliance
by DibsOnOdair
Summary: The unlikeliest alliance in the Games, a typical Career and a small girl from District Five.


A request from Double Deuce that I'm not sure whether I like or hate. XD

_I challenge you to do a 1000-word fic involving Foxface and Marvel. Have fun._

* * *

><p>"I'm not going to kill you."<p>

Her eyes search his face, far below her safe little fork in a tree. He's standing with his arms thrown to either side, his spear tossed into bushes far away. She's fast, and he knows it. If she were to come down, she could easily outrun him, get the spear, and end the boy from District One once and for all.

But he knows she won't. Her strategy for the games has been to flee, not fight.

"Why should I believe you? You're a Career." Her voice shakes, and she releases a breath she didn't know she'd been holding. Every bit of her screams that this is a trap, that he intends to kill her the moment her feet touch ground. Perhaps he'll just sleep down there, wait for her to need food or water, and then end her. One less competitor. That's what this is all about.

"Because I'm not. I'm not like them. I pretended I was because it kept me safe until now, but—" His voice chokes out and he scratches at his forehead, clearly distraught. "Just come down. I can fix your arm." Fix the wound that he afflicted? He certainly was not a typical Career.

She hesitates for a minute, watching him warily, but the blood flowing out of the cut on her arm is enough to force her down eventually. She slides to the ground and almost passes out. Perhaps she lost more blood than she had thought. He makes a move toward her, but she steadies herself and takes a weak fighting stance. He just laughs.

"I may be different, but I still have training. I don't need the spear." She remembers his spears in the Training Center, piercing the heart of every dummy. She winces and shys away from him a little bit. He just comes a little closer, pressing a thin bandage to the cut on her arm. "I'm sorry, about that. I thought you were the girl from Twelve." So the spear he'd thrown at her was meant for another.

"What makes me any different?"

"Well for one thing, she's deadlier than you are." His laugh is soft, and she can feel the smallest bit of tension leech out of her muscles. He roots around in his pack and comes up with a jar of some sort of medicine. He spreads a little on the cut, and she groans. "It's fantastic, I know." The pain is literally just vanishing with every bit of medicine that goes on the wound. She can practically see the skin healing. When the pain is gone, she looks up at him.

"So what now?" He laughs again, just a quick exhalation of air, and then offers his hand.

"I suppose the proper thing to do is introduce myself. I'm Marvel." She hesitates, but extends her hand.

"Jackie." He shakes it firmly. "So, are we allies now?" The unlikeliest alliance in the Games, a typical Career and a small girl from District Five.

"I suppose." He smiles again. He seems awfully lighthearted.

"Why would you want me for an ally?" She can't help but ask.

"You're smart. You've made it this far, haven't you?" He laughs lightly. "Plus you were the best at the edible plants station, and that's my biggest weakness. I almost died a few hours ago, but I noticed in time."

"Really? What were you eating?" She blushes at the compliment, but won't dare take her eyes off his face. If he makes the slightest motion to the spear, she'll be out of there like lightning.

"Nightlock." She whistles appreciatively. "Yeah, I know. We should get moving." He moves towards his spear, and she tenses reflexively. He just rolls his eyes. "Seriously, I'm not going to hurt you. I doubt I'd be able to catch you. You'd lure me into some trap and then I'd be a goner." He cocks his head to the side and she raises an eyebrow and shrugs.

"It's true." She admits, and he pulls the spear out of the ground. She follows behind him a few paces, checking behind them carefully. As they walk, she passes him a few strips of dried beef, which he chews quickly, and half of an apple, which he looks at curiously.

"I thought we were the only ones who had apples?" He asks, referring to the Careers. She turns and starest him straight in the eye.

"You are." He waits a second, and then smirks.

"Maybe we underestimated you."

"Maybe you did." Her smirk rivals his. He starts walking again, and she follows, still smiling slightly.

"So I have a few traps set up in the area. Typical nets hidden under leaves, step in the wrong place and boom goes the cannon." He smirks, a sick smile that spreads across his whole face.

"Who are you hoping to trap?" She asked cautiously, not quite sure if she wanted to know.

"Anyone. Mostly the girl from Twelve."

"Why her?" He frowns, and his eyes turn a dangerous dark blue.

"Because she got an eleven." She swallows and opens her mouth, but a scream interrupts her. They both reflexively turn towards it.

"My trap." He exhales and takes off running. She follows, but stops when he does, right behind the treeline of the small clearing. "It's her ally. The little one from Eleven."

"Katniss!" The little girl is screaming, tugging at the ropes that entrap her, her face laced with pain and terror. "Katniss help!"

Marvel makes a move towards her, one small, determined step, but she stops him.

"What are you doing?"

"What does it look like I'm doing? One less competitor." He smiles slightly, wickedly, shifting his grip on the spear.

"She's helpless. Completely and totally helpless, and you're just going to kill her like this?" She can't fathom the cruelty of it all, but this is the way he was raised, everything he knows. He looks at her, confused.

"Don't you want to win?"

"Not if it means killing a twelve year old." She says firmly. "If you hurt her, this alliance is over." As she says it, she realized this is quite possibly the shortest alliance in any Hunger Games, but she knows she can't stay with him if he hurts her. He takes a deep breath, and she sees the flash in his eyes. "I guess you're not as different as you thought." She says, and turns on her heel. She gets just out of eyesight, but doesn't go too far, and scampers up a tree.

"Rue!" There's a scream from the District Twelve girl, who enters the clearing. Jackie peers out from the leaves, watching as the spear enters the tiny girls body, and the arrow pierces Marvel straight in the chest. Just like that, the only ally she had is dead.

She considers coming down from the tree, comforting Katniss, but she knows that she's upset, and her appearance would probably provoke her to shoot. She would end up no better than her ally.

So she watches Katniss sing the little girl to death, bury her in flowers, and then salute her as she leaves the clearing, tear tracks cutting through the grime on her face. She slides down from her tree and, because it feels right, kisses the first three fingers on her left hand and holds them out to the little girl.

* * *

><p>According to Microsoft Word Count, this is exactly 1000 words. :3<p> 


End file.
